Whereto for Water Education in Asia and the Pacific?

09/11/2019

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06 - Clean Water and Sanitation

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Water education experts from across Asia and the Pacific met in Jakarta on 4 and 5 September 2019 to take stock of the current state of water education in the region, identify significant gaps, and provide guidance and direction to the strengthening of its delivery.

Convened by UNESCO, with the participation of UNESCO water centres and chairs from Asia and the Pacific, water educators, researchers and managers from 10 countries shared their perspectives on existing water curricula in Asia and the Pacific. As a contribution towards enhancing climate resilience in the region, participants drafted a new regional water curriculum informed by emerging and transdisciplinary concepts such as ecohydrology, integrated water resources management and sustainability science.

The event also considered how to mobilize and optimize the contributions of UNESCO’s “water family” – a network of organizations, research institutes and university chairs - towards attaining SDG6 on clean water and sanitation. A key discussion in this regard concerned the possibility of developing a new SDG indicator on water education, and how the region’s water education community could make its voice best heard in these efforts.

The event was made possible through support from the Japanese Funds-in-Trust.